Bet the river with the best hand.
This could seem like an obvious statement, but it will be amazing how often holdem poker players 
check the winning hand on the end. They might think, ‘the pot is big enough,’ ‘I’d better check just in case someone caught that third four,’ or ‘I doubt anyone will call me, so I may as well check.’
The problem with this would be that the pot would not be big enough, that four on the river would probably be a safe card, and someone would call. It would be very vital that not to leave money on the table. You would have to bet the river when you would have the best hand, and should collect those extra calls that your curious poker opponents would impart to you.
This would be one of the few times in poker in which you could bet and get a call from a poker player who would have no chance to beat you. So, you should take advantage of the opportunity to bet the river for value.
When you would be the first to act, you would have to bet if you were to feel you were holding the winner, because you would be apt to get called by slightly worse hands. Yet, if you would check, these hands might then check right behind you.
The exception to their checking would be those times that they would outdraw you, in which case they will bet and you will probably call. So, those times you would be holding the winner, you would cost yourself a bet or two by checking to your poker opponents. However, you would still lose a bet those times you would be beaten.
Raise on the river with the best hand if another player has bet.
To raise for value on the river, you would have to be quite certain of a few things. 
First, you would have to be convinced that you were holding the best poker hands. The problem with raising when you would be only fifty percent certain that you have the winner would be that some of those times you would be wrong and your poker opponent would re-raise you.
This would leave you griping to yourself about what an idiotic raise you would have just made. A good guiding principle would be not to raise on the river unless your chances of winning would be seventy-five percent or greater.
Another significant deliberation would be whether your opponent could call a raise. There will be occasions in which you would feel your opponent was likely bluffing, but there will be a small chance he could have a monster poker hand. So, pay attention to your opponent- even though you could have the essential seventy-five percent chance of holding the winner, raising would still be a bad idea.
This would be because you couldn’t win an extra bet from your rival. He would either fold if he had been bluffing, or call or re-raise if he would have you beat. There would need to be some logical hands that your poker opponent could bet and then call a raise with and would still lose the pot for you to make a raise on the river.
Basically, he would have to be capable of calling your raise with a worse hand for raising to be gainful. If it were an either-or situation he would have been bluffing and couldn’t call a raise or he would have a hand that would have you beat (no matter how unlikely that would be), raising would not be a good idea.
In a multiway pot, you could wish to refuse an occasion to raise for another reason. Suppose the first poker player was to bet, and you were to be the next with a queen high flush. It would probably be the best hand, and certainly one worth a raise. However, if several active poker players were to remain behind you, you might make more money if you would just call. Poker Thoughts.
Your call might stimulate one or more other poker players to call as well; making you more money than if you were to have you raised. Besides, if the original bettor would happen to have you beat, your decision just to call wouldn’t afford him the opportunity to re-raise you. Thus, you might win as much or more money with your hand by calling, and lose less if you were not holding the winner.
Bet with a toss-up hand if you are first to act.
There would be numerous good reasons why betting would be correct if you were to feel you have 
about a fifty percent chance of holding the best hand. Here are three.
- There would be a small chance that a poker opponent might fold the best hand. This wouldn’t happen very often, but you would secure the pot when it would. You would never win a pot this way if you were to check.
- You could bet a toss-up hand and get a call from a slightly worse poker hand. Were you to have checked, it would be unlikely that your opponent would have bet his hand. However, he would probably call you. This would be another condition in which you could win a bet on the river by betting that you could not gain by checking.
- Other times, your poker opponent would have you edged in the hand. However, his hand won’t exactly be a monster, and he might believe that he was danger if you were to bet. For this reason, he would be unlikely to raise, but he would call. You would lose one bet those times you would bet the losing hand on the river. If you would check, though, this same rival would probably bet his hand. Since you would have a toss-up poker hand, you would call, costing you the same single bet that you would lose by betting the hand yourself. That is, it wouldn’t matter whether you were to check or to bet in this situation, because you would always lose exactly one bet.
Of the three possibilities, you would gain by betting in two of them, and would break even in the other. By and large, then, you would be better off betting when first to act on the river if you would assess your chances of winning the pot at around fifty percent.
You would often bet losing hands by employing this strategy but you would also win extra bets and even the occasional extra pot that your more retiring poker opponents would not. And, you could take comfort in knowing that many of those losing bets you would make would often have become losing calls anyway were to you opt to check.
Thus, you wouldn’t really be losing more bets than you would have by not betting your toss-up hands, and you would be profiting by all the winning bets.